Wet Leg: The Early Years

An early photo (posted by Wet Leg on Instagram July 17, 2019) of Rhian and Hester practicing one of their goofy dance moves in the garden. They did this move at least once in their early concerts. In case you don’t get the joke, they are spelling “W” with their “Legs”.

This is the fourth of my posts about Wet Leg, the rock n roll band that is taking over the world and making it a better place (check out the earlier posts). This post attempts to clear up the confusion surrounding their early days, caused mostly by lazy reporting and the girls’ propensity to kid around during interviews.

The story given out is that Rhian and Hester, these two little girls from the Isle of Wight, wrote a silly song to amuse themselves during the long, tiresome covid lockdown. They put it out there and it became a hit, and before you knew it, they had become the biggest band in the world.

That is a fairytale.

The reality is a little more complicated. Just a little. And the reality is a fairytale too, but a slightly more complex YA grade fairytale, not one rated 5-10 yo.

The truth is that they were in their late twenties when they started the group. Previously, they had struggled individually for several years to make it in the music industry and had moments of heartbreak. When they did get together and start their band, they did not make much of an impact with their first five gigs. Then they went into a hiatus as Rhian had to earn a living doing dead-end jobs, but they kept in touch. Then, over a YEAR later, they wrote the magic Chaise Longue. This was in fact BEFORE the first lockdown, but it is true that they did find an agent and a music publisher DURING the FIRST lockdown, and made the song video. The song was released AFTER the THIRD lockdown, over a year and a half after they wrote it, and it was an immediate hit.

THEN they took over the world.

But they faced a great deal of skepticism and misogyny too.

Oh, and by the way, Rhian had a breakup with her boyfriend during the lockdown, the one who helped her and Hester a bit in setting up the band and was their first drummer in their first five gigs. A heartbreak is never pleasant, but it did give Rhian the inspiration for a whole trove of bad-boyfriend songs, many of which became hits, and forever shut up the early skeptics who were writing them off as a one-hit wonder. But the boyfriend got his own back, sort of, by giving a wishy-washy interview to the Sunday Times.

And no, a year on they still aren’t officially the biggest band in the world, although we Wetleggies like to think so, but they are fast getting there, and well on their way to becoming the first true mega-band since Nirvana.

As I said, still a fairytale, one that would make most bands in the world turn green with envy, but slightly more nuanced than the Twitter and Instagram version.

What follows below is a timeline of the first three years of Wet Leg, from when the band was set up, to the breakthrough. It has been pieced together from various interviews and information easily available in the public domain. I don’t write much about their childhood and youth, as that is not the focus of this article, and not much is known anyway. And I don’t write about after the breakthrough, as that would just be a long, boring list of awards, acclaim, and sellout concerts at the greatest venues on the planet. I’m sure there would be lots of fun anecdotes of their globe-trotting tours, but they don’t talk about it much in public. No doubt some day they will appoint an official biographer to write the full Wet Leg story. @Rhian and Hester: Hey, I’m up for the job.

The Timeline

Without further ado, here is the promised timeline.

NOTE: The stuff in the square brackets [] is the reference of where I got the information from. Check in the “Sources” section at the end. If it is a video or podcast, the time offset is also given.

 

1993, March 17 Rhian Louise Teasdale is born in Formby, near Liverpool. Her parents are in the merchant navy. Father is an engineer. Mother: (Rhian: “I don’t quite know what mother was doing in the merchant navy” [zoe 9]) “Mom was a Deck Officer” [anita 51:40] Father: ?, Mother : Jill Kernick

1994, February 1 Hester Chambers is born in England (where exactly?) Mother: Veronica Chambers? Father: ?

1996? Hester moved to the Isle of Wight “as a baby” ( so between 1994 and 1997). [kure]

2001 Rhian moved to the Isle of Wight “at age 8” [kure]

Hester’s childhood Family home is in Yarmouth, IoW (taken from the Chaise Longue video) Hester’s parents run a jewelry store, where she still works occasionally, designing jewelry. Theodosia Jewelers, Newport, IoW Jewelry created by Hester: https://www.facebook.com/jewellerybyhesterchambers Went to Sandown High School, according to Hester’s Facebook page. Sandown High School is now called Bay CE School https://www.bayceschool.org It is at the other end of IoW from Yarmouth. Perhaps her mother dropped her off on the way to work at Newport.

Rhian’s Childhood Home: Sandown, Isle Of Wight At some point Rhian’s mother remarries, and Rhian gets a stepfather named Roger, the same Roger to whom she would sing Happy Birthday in the Wet Leg IoW concert in 2022 on his 70th birthday. Check out this video at 41:53. You can also see Rhian’s mom at 11:42 and 51:40 https://youtu.be/AZoWcUDjV2A?t=2513 Rhian's family portrait 2022. Unfortunately, she hasn't posted earlier photos. But with a bit of imagination, you might be able to visualize what they looked like back then.  Since Rhian’s parents live in Sandown, she too must have gone to Sandown High School like Hester, although they never seem to have met in school.  Perhaps because they were in different grades?

Extracted from a Rolling Stone Interview [mart]: Growing up on the Isle of Wight, Teasdale and Chambers spent their youths attending festivals and hanging out with friends on the beach. “We’re packed into this really small island,” Teasdale says. “Lots of barbecues, lots of camping with your friends, lots of teenage drinking.” Chambers grew up in a musical household, learning to play the piano at a young age while her mother passed on her taste in music: the Moody Blues, the Velvet Underground, Nick Drake, Aretha Franklin, and plenty of David Bowie. Teasdale and Chambers have three siblings each, and Teasdale credits hers with her musical knowledge. “I was able to access their iTunes when iTunes was a thing,” she says. “Through stealing my sister’s music, I discovered Björk, Radiohead, Joanna Newsom, and Devendra Banhart.”

2003 Rhian as Sandown Carnival Princess in 2003, aged 10 at Sandown, IoW

2010 Rhian joins her first band at age 17 [mtv 5:00]. What was the name? Hester starts performing and /or writing music under the stage name "Wilting Disco" at age 15 or 16. She creates a SoundCloud account in this name and publishes a few songs, but that happens only in 2012. It is not clear what she does as Wilting Disco between 2010 and 2012.

Rhian does various dead-end jobs: puppeteer, golf caddy, dressing up in Squawk Bird costume at Robin Hill Theme Park on the IoW [nard 4:30] A Squawk Bird at the Robin Hill Theme Park, Iow. You can here Rhian speaking of the experience of working as a Squawk Bird in this interview at 4:30 ("disgusting"): Hester joins her parents’ shop

2012, June THE LENNON MEETS MCCARTNEY MOMENT: Rhian and Hester (age 19 &18) meet in college (Isle of Wight College https://iwcollege.ac.uk/courses ). They did not interact with each other much initially. Hester found Rhian intimidating. Rhian thought Hester was with the cool group, not her. [mart 13] Specifically, they joined the “Commercial Music” faculty, which is called Platform One  https://sites.google.com/view/platformoneiow/home They joined BTEC National Diploma course at Platform One in 2012 to study for a two-year course which focused on performance, composition, songwriting, sound recording and music theory. The other band members, except for Henry Holmes, were also co-students (Ellis Durand and Josh Omead Mobaraki). They worked together in a study group. [jemm] Interview with Peter Pontin, co-director of Platform One music college by Jemma Dempsey for BBC. He speaks about how the Wet Leg members were as students.

Early 2012 Rhian joins a band, but then the band breaks up and regroups without her, leaving her feeling “kicked in the teeth” [PSL 1:00]. She then decides to go solo. Since she was solo in June 2012, this must have happened slightly before. What was the name of this infamous band? I bet they're all kicking themselves now. 2012, May 6 Hester seemingly changes her stage name from "Wilting Disco" to "Maybe Tuesday". At least, she creates a Facebook musician's page called "Maybe Tuesday" in 2012. It is also possible that this was a band that she launched, but if so, it is not clear who the other members were. Confusingly she also creates a SoundCloud account in 2012 under the name "Wilting Disco" and publishes a few songs (see below).  The Soundcloud account still exists. She continued posting songs on this account (one with Josh Mobraki) as late as 2020. Possibly she used both stage names by turns? To be verified. Anyhow, this was the cover image she used as Wilting Disco And this was the cover image she used as Maybe Tuesday These were the songs she posted on Facebook and SoundCloud as Maybe Tuesday/ Wilting Disco Spanish Sahara (Foals Cover)  (no longer available on SoundCloud) So you're a wolf now? (Original) https://soundcloud.com/headfunksessions/tuesday-maybe-wednesday-so Be Quite and Drive (Far Away) (Deftone Cover) https://soundcloud.com/wiltingdisco/be-quiet-and-dive-far-away Night Bus  (Lucy Rose cover) (no longer available on SoundCloud) Honestly https://soundcloud.com/wiltingdisco/honestly-demo Wilting Disco · Honestly

2012, June 16 This was a photo of Rhian at the Ventnor Fringe Festival taken by Hester, and posted on her Maybe Tuesday Facebook page. She titles this photo "Babushka Baba Yaga". Clearly, Rhian must have gone solo around this time, taking the BBY stage name, as this is the earliest reference to her as BBY. 2012, Dec 4 Rhian officially goes solo, taking on the stage name Babushka Baba Yaga. On this date, she creates a Soundcloud account in this name on this date (the account no longer exists). 2013 In 2013, Hester teams up with a band called Red Squirrel, and releases a set of five videos on YouTube and demos on SoundCloud I have not been able to track down the names of the duo that comprises Red Squirrel, but you can see them in these videos. Someone said one of the members was Josh Mobraki, but it does not look like Josh in these videos. Wicked Game (Cover of Chris Isaak song) https://soundcloud.com/hester-and-red-squirrel/wicked-game-cover Hester and Red Squirrel · Wicked Game // Cover Headlights and Campfire  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-gjIhOuu18 Dark Words https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyn_rgXazaA Fish Boy (no longer available) Above Mountains, Below Sea (Solo) https://soundcloud.com/wiltingdisco/above-moutains-below-sea (Band version with Red Squirrel) https://soundcloud.com/wiltingdisco/above-mountains-below-sea-red Face Like Thunder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8XMg_lZI8 Above the Ocean Below the Sea https://soundcloud.com/headfunksessions/tuesday-maybe-wednesday-above These are the Ghosts (Bee Gees Cover) https://soundcloud.com/wiltingdisco/these-are-the-ghosts-the-bees Here is a screen grab from one of the videos, showing Hester with the Red Squirrel members:

2013, May 17 Rhian completes her first year at the music college, and decides not to do the second year as the fee is too steep at 9000 pounds p.a. and she does not see the value [abc 7:00]. Hester seems to have completed the course, going by her Facebook page. What about Ellis and Joshua?

2013, May 19 Rhian plays at Quay Arts Centre, Newport IoW in the Acoustic Originals concert. Plastic Mermaids is also on the bill. This is possibly where Rhian meets Doug Richards of Plastic Mermaids the first time, and they go on to have a relationship. In any case, according to Doug’s interview with the Sunday Times[glan], the relationship started in 2013, after a Plastic Mermaids concert. Doug later plays with Wet Leg in the initial gig until his breakup with Rhian in 2019, which leads to all the Wet Leg post-breakup songs like Ur Mum and Wet Dream.

2013, July Rhian records a song called Leila solo at IoW on Choosic TV under the stage name Babushka Baba Yaga. https://youtu.be/iLKMKvu-jeE

2013, Sep 1 Rhian records writes and records the song Hum Drum Drivel under the stage name Babushka Baba Yaga. Hum drum Drivel recorded by Choosic TV at IoW  https://youtu.be/WSKyASxPChk

2013, November Rhian plays solo gigs under the stage name Babushka Baba Yaga. Here is a concert poster for the Halloween Party concer on Nov1, where she was one of the artists.

Rhian’s gigs in 2013 as Babushka Baba Yaga

2013, Dec 2 Rhian changes her stage name from Babushka Baba Yaga to RHAIN (note the tiny change in spelling to rhyme with rain), according to a post on her Facebook page Between 2013 and 2017, she does various solo performances at IoW, Bristol and London as RHAIN, while still based at IoW. Here is a concert poster from 2014, July for a concert at Southampton where she was headlining.

2014 Rhian’s gigs in 2014 as RHAIN In 2014 Rhian released a song called Tumble Home

Rhian Photographed at the IoW festival 2014 by the Cosmopolitan. Her profession is mentioned as pianist. Here is the concert poster for IoW 2014, featuring RHAIN on Saturday 14th June in the Kashmir Tent (meant for local musicians)

2015, April Rhian moves to Bristol (at age 23) on the insistence of Bristol based music promoter Aled Chivers (whom she had first met at age 16, at around the same time as she was in music college – perhaps he was a guest at the college?). She signs up with his promotion company Chevrin, and between 2015 and 2019 releases 8 songs as RHAIN. She does odd jobs in Bristol and London to earn a living? Where? What? A Chevrin Poster featuring RHAIN

2015, May 1 RHAIN on the cover of a Bristol music mag

2015, April 12 Rhian Sings “Furniture” at Sofar in Bristol https://youtu.be/ssdNNayfzwY

2015 Rhian’s gigs in 2015 as RHAIN

2016 Rhian releases her first song as RHAIN on Chevrin label. Humdrum Drivel. Press Release: https://drownedinsound.com/news/4149772-discover--rhain-humdrum-drivel-premiere Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rhainmusic/humdrum-drivel-1 (But she had played and recorded it earlier on Choosic in 2013)

2015-2018 Rhian releases a series of solo songs in these three years. Check them out on her SoundCloud account: https://soundcloud.com/rhainmusic/ 2015: Furniture 2016: Humdrum Drivel, Josephine 2017: Tall Ships, Pavlova. She also releases an EP named Oscar November Echo 2018: Solid Gold, Time Traveler

2016 During this period, Rhian performs solo as RHAIN, as well as with Plastic Mermaid occasionally. Here is a gig she did at Sofar, London with Plastic Mermaid in 2016 https://youtu.be/pFZ-9K4PonQ

Rhian’s gigs in 2016 as RHAIN The cover of RHAIN's EP, Released 1st Dec 2016 The Poster for RHAIN's first solo concert in London, Dec 2016

2017 Rhian’s gigs in 2017 as RHAIN In 2017, Hester releases a couple of songs and videos with Josh, under the name Sleep Well. It is not clear if Sleep Well was the name of the song or their band name, or both. The videos have been removed from  YouTube, but you can see snippets from both videos in the video "Wet Leg: Before They were Famous" at around 5:25: https://youtu.be/H2W4hsyolfU?t=325 However, there still exists a SoundCloud demo of this song: Red Squirrel Productions · Sleep Well Here is a screen grab from the Sleep Well video: The other song was Day After Day (also no longer available on YouTube).

2018, Apr 5 BBC records Time Traveler, which Rhian wrote about her grandad. Since he was born in the early twenties and had seen a great deal of modern history, she thinks of him as a time traveler. https://youtu.be/AQ7UJhAW-Rs

Rhian received some positive press in the period 2016-2018 as RHAIN. Her voice was compared to that of Kate Bush, Bjork, and Joanna Newsom. In an interview, she said that she had been influenced by Devendra Banhart, Bjork, Joni Mitchell among others.  However, in later years she would look back with regret at this period. She says in a billboard interview :  “I think before when I was writing, I would try and overcomplicate stuff, and the singing. I would try and show off the full range of my voice, but that is just unnecessary. It’s like guys on guitar who shred; it’s just musical masturbation.” However, it is difficult to believe that she would be able to do the amazing things that she does with her voice so effortlessly today, without all the hard work that she had put in, in this period. This should be a reality-check to would-be Rhian copy cats: you can’t carry off that ‘casual’, ‘nonchalent’ style of singing without years of grinding effort.

2018 Rhian’s gigs in 2018 as RHAIN (refer to this list for the next section)

2018, Summer Despite critical success, Rhian appears not to have enjoyed a great deal of popular success. She says in several interviews that she got fed up doing solos, especially when she played a gig to just “one old man and his Wellies”. She started having anxiety attacks, and considered leaving the music industry. She asked Hester to help her out with her remaining gig commitments. They ended up having a really good summer hanging out and playing festivals [PSL 1:50] [isq 2:32] “I started crying in second song, first concert at beginning of summer 2018.” This has to be the Timber Festival on July 7, since summer officially starts on June 21 in UK. (see above gig list). After that she “plucked up the courage” to ask Hester to join her in the remaining concerts. They practiced playing together. Rhian’s songs at this point were accompanied by herself on piano. The arrangements had to be reworked to include Hester’s guitar. Initially they were both petrified of each other. For Hester, it was the first time playing with just another woman. “It was like there were no boys to tell us what to do.” “It was just a silly thing. It soon passed. Now it is great to have so much autonomy” All the gigs after the Timber Festival in the above gig list must have been done with Hester supporting Rhian on guitar.

2018, Sep 2 THE PACT ON THE FERRIS WHEEL Rhian and Hester decide to launch the band on a Ferris wheel at the End of the Road Festival Aug 30, 2018 – Sep 2, 2018, after concert by Idles (on 2 Sep, Sunday). They met the band after the show and tried to get them to join them on the Ferris wheel, but the boys declined, so Rhian and Hester went alone. [Elton 1:00]. It is on the Ferris Wheel they make a pact to start a new band and focus simply on enjoying themselves and having fun, and not worrying about success. In another interview, they mention that this may have partly been as a result of seeing the Idles play as “the boys seem to be having so much fun on the stage”. They had also drunk a lot of beer, according to another interview, so that might have been a factor too. Location: The Larmer Tree Gardens near Tollard Royal in south Wiltshire, England Here is a retrospective video of the EOR festival, 2018. The famous Ferris wheel can be seen at 0:55 and 1:08. You can also see a snippet of the Idles concert at 4:00 (unrelated audio) Here is a screen grab of the famous Ferris Wheel... There is a video on YouTube that purports to be the Idles 2018 EoR concert, but from the markings on the video it is probably the 2017 Pohoda concert. Anyway, the EoR concert would have been something like this. If you have never seen the Idles in concert, this may give you some idea about what Rhian and Hester might have found so inspiring about it. (Personally, if you want my opinion, I think it was the beer).

2018 Sep – 2019 June THE SOUND They work on their sound, as described by Hester in this interview at around 4:04 [isq]They decided they would start a band, and both play guitar, although Rhian had never before played guitars, because they wanted to be a guitar band. “We never really thought it would be a serious band, so that has helped to get the band to an authentic and genuine place.”

FIRST SONG They write a few songs: The first song they ever wrote together was “I wanna be abducted (by a UFO)” [riley 8:00]. Followed by Oh No, Too Late Now.  Rhian has been at pains to point out in various interviews that “I wanna be abducted” was the first true Wet Leg song. It was directly inspired by something that happened on the Ferris wheel. At one point, Hester had thrown her hands in the air and screamed “I wanna be abducted”. The very same night, they worked this into a song in their music room. [rnz 9:37]  Even though this song gets step-motherly treatment – it was not on the Wet Leg album, and they rarely play it in concerts - this is the quintessential Wet Leg song, much more so than Chaise Longue. Other than the fact that it was the first one, done on the night of the pact and directly inspired by a cry from the heart by Hester at the moment of birth of Wet Leg, it explores the feelings of alienation and wanting to get away that had driven them into launching a new band. It is also a salute to the artist whom they both acknowledge as their premier source of inspiration, David Bowie, and his Ziggy Stardust persona. One reason for its lack of prominence in the Wet Leg corpus could be due to the fact that the girls worry that this song could be perceived as regressive in the #MeToo world. Rhian mentioned this as a reason for adding “(by a UFO)” in the title. See further down for the very first public performance of I Wanna be Abducted at their second ever gig. Here is a sweet 2022 performance of the song at Copenhagen:

THE NAME Rhian and Hester settle on Wet Leg as their band name. Why? They were asked this question hundreds of times in later interviews, and got used to giving pat and/or creative replies, but the answer that is closest to the truth is probably this Matt Wilkinson interview on July 7, 2021, shortly after the release of Chaise Lounge, and probably their first interview as Wet Leg. Hester answers in some detail, and the way they speak sounds more authentic than in later interviews.  ( [matt 2:10]) At 2:10 in the interview, Hester says that they had a really long list of fun names (how they got the list is not clarified), but that name kept coming back. She found it funny. Rhian says she liked it because people got upset by it. Hester says that her aunt googled the name, and was worried that it had an unpleasant slang meaning (The term has several insalubrious definitions on Urban Dictionary, including “A person or persons with strangely damp legs. Possibly caused by sexual arousal or incontinence.”). This made them all the more determined to keep the name. Rhian was unsure about the name, but Hester fell in love with it. She even made two necklaces, one with “Wet” and another with “Leg”, and gave one to Rhian and wore one herself. At that point, Rhian gave in, seeing how Hester was sold on it [bri 24:10]. The above account actually ties in with the interview Doug Richards gave to the Sunday Times[glan]. He said he and his brother kept a school notebook where they kept noting down funny word combinations, for possible future use as band names. He had offered this notebook to Rhian and Hester, and they picked Wet Leg from it.  It also ties in with my own theory (which I propounded in my very first Wet Leg blog post), that it refers to what we might delicately call a ‘Tampon Crisis’. It is just the sort of thing which would appeal to the Rhian and Hester’s sense of humor.

THE FIRST HIATUS Rhian returns to London for work, collaborates with Hester remotely. [zoe]Teasdale did a season selling ice-cream, then went to London – worked at an ice-rink, did a stint as a wardrobe assistant for adverts. [corey ] Rhian was working as fashion stylist’s assistant in London before Chaise Lounge got written [shan] Rhian recently worked as a wardrobe assistant on the music video for Ed Sheeran’s track “Bad Habits”. “I’ve been working for my friend who’s a stylist and costume designer for about three years now (**). We mainly do commercials and boring stuff like that, but sometimes we’ll do a music video. We didn’t dress Ed, though. We worked with his cool vampire squad.” The experience gave Rhian the confidence to come up with the cottagecore-inspired looks for Wet Leg’s own music videos. Without the know-how, they wouldn’t have ordered “an obscene amount of stuff from the internet” to try on and ultimate make part of their image. [**Interview was in August2022, so she must have started the job in 2019]

June 2019 onwards, they do a few gigs, with a few supporting musicians. Rhian's boyfriend Doug Richards from Plastic Mermaids on drums. Michael Champion from Champs, another IoW band, on bass. Rhian had earlier supported both the bands in her RHAIN period.

2019, June 16  FIRST GIG The very first wet Leg gig happened at the Isle of Wight Festival 2019, which took place from 13 to 16 June, 2019. They played  in the Kashmir Tent, which is a small stage reserved for locals, to a small group of friends  Hester: "We played for about 30 minutes, including cover of a friend's song." This is the first time that the name Wet Leg appears on a poster: A video of the gig (first three clips. The following clips are from the Rythmtree festival (third gig) Set List: ?? To be done Drums: Doug Richards,  Bass: Michael Champion  Rhian and Hester at IoW 2019, shortly after the gig (posted on their Instagram account)

2019, June 26 SECOND GIG At Newport, Isle of Wight.  This clip contains just one song, the first public performance of their very first song, I Wanna be Abducted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2l4nKGP15g Set List: ?? To be done Drums: Doug Richards,  Bass: Michael Champion

2019, July 13 THIRD GIG At the Rhythmtree Festival, IoW. The following video shows just one song, Sharks. But there are two more songs from the Rythmtree festival in the second half of the video posted above, for the IoW gig   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SycvMBxqMo Set List: Sharks, ... ?? To be done Drums: Doug Richards,  Bass: Michael Champion   Hester at the Rythmtree festival 2019 2019, July 17 Rhian and Hester practice the "W Leg" dance move in their garden

2019, July 19 FOURTH GIG BlueDot Festival in Cheshire 18-21 JULY 2019 (they played on Friday 19) Set List : To be done?? Bass: Josh Drums: Doug Richards The full video of this gig is no longer available on YouTube, but there is a clip of it in this larger video made by Joe Gray, called "Wet Leg, before they were famous". The BlueDot clip is at 13:50. https://youtu.be/H2W4hsyolfU?t=830 Photos of the Blue Dot festival, by @raelperson and @bennys_gigstagram. Was this the first public performance of the "W Leg" dance move? Rhian at the Blue Dot festival, 2019

2019, August 17 FIFTH GIG At The Rose (a pub in Ventnor, IoW) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRGFcv8xn3I   Thanks to Joanne Thornton for this amazing video Set List: Red Eggs, Wolves, Oh No, Sharks, TFOZ (early version of Too Late Now), Ooh (Plastic Mermaids cover) Drums: Doug Richards,  Bass: Michael Champion  This gig is where their future drummer Harry Holmes sees them for the first time. Holmes was playing at the same gig with another band, the Lunateers. He says in an interview that he was “fucking mind blown by Wet Leg. I thought, ‘I think I’d like to be in that band’, and it kind of all worked out.”  [nard 9:38] This gig is notable, as you can see Rhian and Hester experimenting with various styles, trying to find the right sound. The punk version Oh No is particularly good, and in many ways better than the pop version which was released two years later. Here is what The Rose in Ventnor used to look like (I understand it is now closed). Ventnor is a town to the south of IoW.

SIXTH GIG (aborted) They were scheduled to play at a Hallowe'en show in 2019 as well, but pulled out. Thanks to Toby Collard for this info.

Rhian says in an interview that Domino signed them up after “only four gigs” [riley]. But this only happens in Nov 2020. So, no more gigs for one year after these first five initial gigs (Rhian obviously forgets about one of the gigs in the interview).

2019 Aug 17 - Dec 20 THE BIG PAUSE After these initial gigs in 2019, Rhian returns to London to resume work as assistant to fashion stylist.

2019, Dec 20 CHAISE LONGUE Rhian stays over with Hester and Joshua in their flat at the IoW for the Christmas holidays [riley 8:30], so sometime before Christmas Day. She sleeps on Hester’s Chaise Longue, which Hester had “inherited”. She had come for just a short sleepover of two days, but stayed on for six weeks [riley]. Here is a picture that Rhian posted on Instagram dated Dec 27 2019. Possibly it shows them working on Chaise Longue. Is that a bit of the famous chaise longue sticking out of the corner of the photo?

2020, Jan Chaise Longue gets written in week-5 of the sleepover [riley 8:40], so in the third week of 2020. They wrote many silly songs together. Chaise Longue was one of them. It referred to the Chaise Longue on which Rhian was sleeping. The ‘Excuse Me’ in the song refers to the fact that from her Chaise Longue Rhian was shouting out to Hester who was cooking in the kitchen, and Hester kept saying ‘Excuse Me’. Here is a photo that Rhian posted on Jan 17 2020, around the time that Chaise Lounge demo was first recorded. The photo shows her and what seems to be Henry Holmes. Possibly he had joined the sleepover gang for the drums at this point. CHAISE LONGUE ARRANGEMENT In this ABC radio interview done by Andrew Ford [abc 12:30], Josh describes in detail how Chaise Lounge was arranged. Skip to 12:30.

2020, Feb After eventually leaving Hester and Joshua as “the guest who refuses to leave”, Rhian might have returned to London to resume her job with the fashion stylist. But she was back at the IoW shortly before the first lockdown in March, as the Chaise Lounge video was made in IoW during the first lockdown. Or she might not have left IoW at all – she might have moved from Hester’s flat to her mom’s home or to Doug’s home (see below).

2020, March 26 Start of First COVID lockdown

2020, April Chaise Lounge Video made in April 2020  The Angelica video was apparently also made at the same time (to be verified), although the single and video don't get officially released until 28th Feb 2022.   A detailed account of how Wet Leg landed their record deal is given in this Billboard interview.  Their bassist for the first four gigs,  Michael Champion, who also happened to be A&R executive for management company Hall or Nothing, sent the video to his boss, Martin Hall. Hall loved the video and signed on as their manager. He said: “The fact that you can’t see Hester’s face in the whole video, the humor involved, it’s hard to do humor in music videos, but it’s so dry, the way Rhian sings to camera. It sounded unlike anything else.” Hall sent the video and other early Wet Leg demos to Domino, Island Record and others. Domino and Island Records sent over representatives to the Isle of Wight to meet the band. “It seemed to me that they were making guitar music for themselves,” says Jordan Whitmore, Domino’s U.K. A&R manager. “They were not trying to be like anyone else or taking themselves too seriously.” Over a pint and some chips at the Spyglass pub, Teasdale and Chambers bonded with the Domino team and signed with the label in November 2020. More details about the Domino signup in this Guardian Interview

During lockdown, Rhian breaks up with Doug Richards due to an incident during the lockdown, later made famous in Piece of Shit.

"When lockdown arrived in 2020, they found themselves living together again at Doug’s house in Cowes. They weren’t a couple, but neither had they fully moved on. Then Doug met Siobhan, now his fiancée, and things went downhill fast. He invited Siobhan to come to stay with him, suggesting Rhian give them some space. It did not go down well. “Rhian got really furious with me,” says Doug. “She used anything that she could to throw at me and make me feel shit.”" Extracted from Sunday Times

2020, June 15 First Lockdown End

Their meetings with Domino executives and executives of other recording companies happen in restaurants, over falafel. So, it would be between the lockdowns, when restaurants are open again. The Domino executives order the better falafel, so they are selected.[abs 2:00] (the falafel story might be one of Rhian's obscure jokes)

2020, 5 Nov Second Lockdown Start

2020, Nov Signed up to Domino. Exact Date??

2020, Dec 2 Second Lockdown End

2021, Jan 4 Third Lockdown Start

??? Chaise Lounge is produced somewhere in this period??

??? Doug sends his infamous WhatsApp message to Rhian, and she writes the song Wet Dream in fury “shortly after receiving the message” [riley 12:00]. Presumably, the message was sent several months after the breakup March 2020, to allow time for regret to sink in. He might have heard of her success in signing up with Domino, which might have added to the regret. And the song would have been written several months prior to the release in Sep 2021, to allow for arrangement, production, and marketing. So, he might have sent the message somewhere around here, during the third lockdown when many people sat at home and introspected on life. This is as good a guess as any. Only Rhian and Doug know the exact date.

2021, May 17 Third Lockdown End

2021, June 15 Chaise Lounge is Released by Domino

Chaise Lounge goes viral shortly after release

Lockdown over, Holmes joins the band as replacement for Doug Richards for live gigs, as well as Josh and Ellis as replacement for Michael Champion. They play Latitude and Greenman festivals with the new lineup right after lockdown and Chaise Lounge success.

Wet Leg gigs in 2021, the first “true” Wet Leg gigs.

2021, July 23 First (major) gig post fame: Latitude Henham Park, Suffolk “Wet Leg's first proper gig was in the new bands tent at Latitude Festival 2021. The buzz about the Isle of Wight band from debut single 'Chaise Longue' was so big, the queue to get in the tent was 100s deep. Here's them playing an early version of 'Being In Love'” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vur1gaNycvQ Pictures of the Latitude gig by  Katie Willoughby and others: Poster of the Latitude Festival. Wet Leg is outlined in red if you expand the pic:.

2021, Late July, Early August??? Wet Dream is produced somewhere around here, as follow up after success of Chaise Lounge ?? The video is probably also made around this time. It was clearly shot in the summer, it had to have been shot after the Chaise Lounge success, it was released on 28th Sep 2021. So this puts a date of late July - early August 2021. If anyone knows the precise dates, I would be happy to update this.

2021, Aug 19 Second (major) gig post fame: Greenman Festival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8FELWZcmZw

2021, Sep 19 Third (major) gig post fame: At IoW Festival 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqENo5zJQn8 Other Early Gigs: They appear to have done some minor gigs in August and September, prior to this, as evidenced by some of these concert posters dated 5 Aug, 28 Aug and 3 Sep:

2021, Sept 28 Second single "Wet Dream" released. Album art. The video was released on the same day. When was it made ? To be verified.

2021, Oct Gigs in October 2021 Other gigs in Late October 2021, not mentioned in above poster OCT 29-30,2021,London Calling, Amsterdam, Netherlands OCT 26, 2021, Omeara, London, UK OCT 24, 2021, McChuills, Glasgow, UK OCT 23, 2021, Night & Day Cafe, Manchester, UK

2021, Oct 30 They appear on Later... with Jools Holland on BBC2

2021, Nov  Gigs in November 2021 NOV 25,2021,O2 Academy Brixton,London, UK NOV 19,20,2021,Super Bock em Stock, Lisbon, Portugal NOV 15-22, Pitchfork Paris, Paris, France NOV 17, 2021,Leadmill, Sheffield, UK NOV 10, 2021, The Mill, Birmingham, UK

2021, Nov 29 Release the double-single "Too Late Now" / "Oh No" Along with the videos.

2021, Dec 2021, Dec 1 Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, on 1st Dec 2021 Filming for the Too Late Now video somewhere in early Dec 2021. Was the Oh No video shot around the same time, since both songs were released together? 2021, Dec 8 FIRST AMERICAN TOUR In December 2021, Wet Leg did their first US tour, highlighted by their first appearance on US TV, Late Night With Seth Meyers. The YouTube video seems to have been pulled off, but here is a screenshot: 2021, Dec 7 This was their very first concert in US, Mercury Lounge, NY These were the dates of the first US tour: DEC 7,2021, Mercury Lounge, New York, NY DEC 8,2021, Union Pool, Brooklyn, NY DEC 9,2021 Baby’s All Right, Brooklyn, NY DEC 13,2021 Grand Ole Echo Los Angeles, CA DEC 14,2021 The Moroccan Lounge Los Angeles, CA DEC 15,2021 Rickshaw Stop San Francisco, CA DEC 16,2021 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA DEC 17,18 2021 Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, CA

2022 UK Tour Dates Jan 2022 2022, 28th Feb Angelica single and video are publicly released, although the video was probably made around the same time as the Chaise Lounge video (to be verified). (see above). Second American Tour Dates March 2022 2022, 10th March They appear on the Tonight Show while on their first US tour. UK Tour Dates April 2022 2022, April 8 Debut self-titled album released by Domino. 2022, June 20 Wet Leg play to the home crowd at the Isle of Wight Festival 2022, with friends and family welcoming the conquering heroines. Possibly the best Wet Leg concert ever. Watching it, you feel a part of the Wet Leg family. First Australian Tour Dates July 2022 Third American Tour Dates, July-Oct 2022 2022, Aug 18 Wet Leg play at Routes du Rock, St Malo 2022  2022, Aug 29 Wet Leg play at Lollapalooza 2022  2022, Oct 11 They appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live while on the second American tour. European Tour Dates Oct-Nov 2022 2022, Nov 16 Wet Leg are nominated for five Grammys This is their cute reaction video: UK Tour Dates Nov 2022: New Your Gigs Dec 2022 Last US Concert of 2022 at Williamsburg (probably their last concert of 2022):

2022, Dec Rhian finally feels secure enough about her music career to give up her day job as a fashion stylist’s assistant in London. She has had this job since 2019 (three years).[shan] (Although, it is hard to believe she had done any work at all at her day job, in the preceding 15 months...)

And the rest, as they say…

 Sources / Further Reading

[riley] The primary source that I used was an interview that Rhian and Hester did with Jill Riley in 2021 for the Current. This is probably the best Wet Leg interview from the historian’s perspective, as Jill systematically leads Rhian and Hester through their formative period, without fluff and nonsense, and for once, the girls give straightforward replies without wisecracks and tall tales, and without cracking-up giggling, as they are so often wont to do.

https://youtu.be/mAmI52XMxAI

Contrast this with an interview they did on the Isle of Wight in 2022, possibly the worst interview the girls have ever done **. They giggle uncontrollably throughout, and the interviewer is almost tearing his hair towards the end. And they crack inscrutable jokes about their second album, which goes on to cause a great deal of confusion in the Wet Leg world. (** for a historian that is, but pure joy for Wet Leg fans – this is Rhian and Hester undiluted!!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqcfadcrcyY

I followed up on Jill Riley interview by tracking down precise dates and corroborative data from other sources, and mining nuggets of info from other interviews. The Riley interview is referenced in the timeline as [riley mm:ss] where mm:ss is the time into the video.

[werth] A great source of info for the events leading up to the signing up with Domino Records are this Billboard interview with Christine Werthman...

https://www.billboard.com/music/features/wet-leg-debut-album-tour-2022-interview-1235048662/

[zoe] ... and this Guardian interview with Zoe Williams.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jan/10/were-just-little-country-bumpkins-2022s-hottest-band-wet-leg-on-songs-silliness-and-their-surprise-success

[kure] Dom Kureen interviews Rhian and Hester for IoW County Press. Info on their move to IoW

https://www.countypress.co.uk/news/19631921.exclusive-interview-isle-wight-band-wet-leg/

[hemm] Podcast of interview with Rhian by Jeff Hemmings for Brighton’s Finest Radio Interview. 

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bf-radio-interviews/episodes/BF-Music-Radio---Wet-Leg-e19haf3

[mart] Rolling Stone Interview with Rhian and Hester by Angie Martoccio. 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/wet-leg-interview-chaise-longue-1293358/

[glan] Josh Glancy interviews Rhian’s ex-boyfriend Doug Richards for the Sunday Times, where he speaks about his breakup with Rhian, being the first Wet Leg drummer, being the real-life inspiration behind all the Wet Leg bad-boyfriend songs. 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/my-wet-leg-lover-gave-me-the-boot-and-wont-stop-kicking-ll29qgl5w

[maso] Rhian interview by Sam Mason-Jones on SoundofBristol when she was still RHAIN. Info about her career pre Wet Leg.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220410094026/https://365bristol.com/story/2016/12/02/the-sound-of-bristol-rhain/3466/

[jemm] Interview with Peter Pontin, co-director of Platform One music college by Jemma Dempsey for BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-64539349

[anita] Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio with Anita Rani 47:22 onwards. Some info about Rhian’s mother.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0016hgv

[elton] Rhian and Hester are interviewed by Sir Elton John. Some anecdotes about the moment they decided to start Wet Leg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaGrChEIQ_g&t=190s

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-64539349

[corey ]Corey Seymour interviews Rhian and Hester for Vogue. Rhian was working as fashion stylist’s assistant in London before Chaise Lounge got written

https://www.vogue.com/article/meet-wet-leg-the-worlds-buzziest-new-band

[shan]Shannon Jenkins interviews Rhian for Aus Arts Magazine Frankie. More info on Rhian’s job as fashion stylist.

https://www.frankie.com.au/article/tunesday-a-chinwag-with-rhian-teasdale-from-wet-leg-583449

Rhian’s sound cloud account

https://soundcloud.com/rhainmusic

[sirus]Interview with an acoustic concert on Canadian radio station SiriusXMU sessions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKfc4QxrBd8

[nard ] Nardwuar interviews the full Wet Leg team at Neptoon Records in Vancouver, Canada. Mostly useless interview as the interviewer spends more time talking than his guests, but it does contain two nuggets of information: the first time Henry Holmes saw Wet Leg, and Rhian’s part-time jobs prior to success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10pwgD-Jrnw

[just]Justin Jacobs interviews for Relix magazine: anecdotes about American tour

https://relix.com/articles/detail/wet-leg-riding-the-wave/

[PSL] PSL SVT interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MetG8VDfFo&t=421s

[Frankie ] Amazing Radio Interview 2021 by Frankie Francis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0H4VEtoyNo

[rnz] Radio interview in New Zealand for RNZ Aukland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoogEqXZ6CY&t=264s

2:48 singing to only one person audience

3:00 frustration, friends becoming lawyers and docs buying things, no holidays

5:50 last job only 6 months ago, in dec, was working until then as difficult to give up job (IW Date 2022-7-23 so last job dec 2021)

8:00 why live sounds differs from the record

9:30 origin of UFO: Hester shouting that line on the Ferris wheel, worked on it the same night in the music room at home

[xsm] Sirius XM Sessions interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKfc4QxrBd8

0:00 Oh No, Too Late Now among the first WL songs

Acoustic versions of Wet Dream and Too Late Now, an amazing Material Girl cover of Madonna!

[matt]Matt Wilkinson show July 7, 2021 Early radio interview, when CL was just out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb2j9L71WWQ

2:10  Contains good history of band name 

00:40 Details about the first gig

Rhians Motto: 1:20 Feel the fear and do it anyway

[bri] Brightons Finest Interview Date:8/2022?? (done right after Greenman)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkM-box7bM4

3:00 Current lineup, former bf in band, kicked out

6:48 moving to IoW at 8

13:00 first interest in music: loads of Disney films as a kid

24:20 Rhian wasn’t sure of name but Hester insisted, even made gold neckless saying Wet and Leg

 

[mtv] Interviewed at MTV Music News Web Premiered Jan 26, 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPnLLXo1K2A&t=252s

 

[isq]ISQ conversations about music by Jenny Eliscu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjlZYVIUJG8&t=35s

2:32 started crying in second song, first concert at beginning of summer 2018. So it has to be the Timber Festival on July 7 (summer officially starts on June 21 in UK). After that she “plucked up the courage” to ask Hester to join her in the remaining concerts. They practiced playing together. Initially they were both petrified of each other. For Hester, it was the first time playing with just another woman. “It was like there were no boys to tell us what to do.” “It was just a silly thing. It soon passed. Now it is great to have so much autonomy”

They decided they would start a band, and both play guitar, although Rhian had never before played guitars, because they wanted to be a guitar band. “We never really thought it would be a serious band, so that has helped to get the band to an authentic and genuine place.” Chaise Longue got sent to an agent by their former bass player, and they were surprised it was going to be their first release, as it was “never meant to be a thing. We were writing different music at the time.” Too Late now was written to fille the set, more chordy

[abc] ABC RN Andrew Ford 2022 7 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs2oz1njyyU

07:00 about dropping out of music school. 9000 pounds a year.

12:30 detailed description of the making of chaise lounge by Josh.

Great acoustic of being love and wet dream!!!

 [abs] Absolute Radio interview by Danielle Perry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmd--pHzRaY

2:00 Domino signed the deal over falafel (might be tongue-in-cheek)